State Duma deputies and members of the Federation Council gathered to tighten legislation on foreign agents

Deputies of the State Duma and members of the Federation Council have prepared a draft on additional measures to counter threats to national security. Information about this is published on the website of the legislative body.

The authors of the project want to change certain legislative acts and, in general, to tighten the legislation on “foreign agents”.

“The bill introduced today continues the trend of marginalization of non-profit organizations and experts not affiliated with the state. The bill obliges the media and other information resources to indicate the status of a "foreign agent", including for individuals. By the way, this legislative initiative spells out in detail the mechanism for including individuals in the lists of foreign agents on the basis of broad categories of foreign funding and engaging in political activities,” comments OVD-Info lawyer Denis Shedov.

It is proposed to indicate the "foreign agency" status when applying to state bodies, public and educational organizations. In addition, individuals included in the list of foreign agents will have to report to the Ministry of Justice about their income and expenses at least twice a year.

• On November 10, the government submitted a draft law to the State Duma proposing new grounds for inspections and liquidation of non-profit organizations. In particular, the authors want to expand the concept of "foreign funding" - namely, to consider foreigners and stateless people as "beneficial owners" of NPOs. It is also planned to oblige NCOs, the participant, leader or founder of which is a foreigner, to coordinate their programs with the state in advance. In the event that a complaint is received from any source, including private individuals, about the cooperation of an NPO with an " undesirable organization ", the security forces will be authorized to conduct an inspection.
• The European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg in 2018 communicated the third complaint against the law "On Foreign Agents" - from 13 Russian NGOs, reported Kommersant . The applicants believe that the current legislation suppresses the development of civil society in Russia. In 2017, the ECtHR communicated the first complaint against this law filed by 61 Russian NGOs.